Wall chute for bills



Dec. 1, 1936.

T. E. CARTWRVIGIHT WALL CHUTE FOR BILLS Filed Feb. 25, 1936 *m w I Patented Dec. 1, 1936 WALL CHUTE FOR BILLS Thomas E. Cartwright, Portland, 0reg., assignor of one-half to F. Sylvester Cartwright, Portland, Oreg.

Application February 25, 1936, Serial No. 65,579

6 Claims.

The object of my invention is to provide a wall chute which is particularly adapted to receive bills for public utility companies which are not normally posted thru the United States mails but are delivered by representatives of said companies. Said bills are usually flat and capable of being formed into a rolled cylinder. Said bills are of substantially uniform size and at the present time it is common practice to slip them under a door, place them between the door and its jamb or to put them alongside the handle of the door. All of these manners of leaving said bills at a customers house render said bills subject to being lost and frequently cause claims to be made that no bill has been left. It is impossible to place them in the ordinary mail box because of postal regulations.

In order to make a receptacle for said bills practical, it requires that said receptacle be adapted to receive said bills conveniently, to hold said bills against inadvertent retraction and preferably to prevent their retraction after they have once been placed in said receptacle. Said receptacle also must be susceptible of receiving bills of different lengths so that said receptacle is adapted to be used by several different utilities having bills of different lengths and a retracting means must be provided for aiding the withdrawal of said bills, independent of their length.

I attain my object in a device adapted to be arranged to extend thru a wall adjacent the front door. Said device is preferably arranged substantially above the door handle so that children cannot play with said device and withdraw bills therefrom. Said device comprises a tubular chute of uniform diameter which may be easily and quickly locked in place by the formation of lateral external flanges engaging the faces of the walls. Two cover plates are arranged to cover the ends of said tubular chute and to conceal the apertures in the wall in which said tubular chute is arranged. The outer cover plate is preferably provided with an internally formed conical flange axially alined with the tubular chute and extending into the bore thereof a substantial distance. Said conical flange is spaced from the walls thereof. The other end of said tubular chute is covered by a plate having a hinged cover which permits the end of a bill to be readily pushed therefrom if it is too long for said tubular chute. Said conical flange performs two functions: One, it helps spirally to roll the bill into tubular form, and two, it prevents the retraction of said bill after it 15 once placed in said tubular chute, and is permitted to expand toits normal diameter. Said bill can only beremoved from the inner face of the wall, that. iswithin the house, by opening the hinged cover of the inner face plate and retracting said bill. Details of my in- 5 vention are hereinafter described with reference to the accompanying drawing, in which:

Fig. l is a fragmentary external view of. a door and casing with one of my improved" devices mounted in the latter; I

Fig. 2 is a transverse section taken on the line 2--2 of Fig. 3 thru a Wall. with my device in place;

Fig. 3 is a perspective. detail of azretractor preferably used with my device;

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary elevation of a sill look; 15

ing at the outer face plateof my invention;

Fig. 5 is a view similar to Fig. 4 looking at the inner face plate embodyingmy. invention;

Fig. 6 is a foreshortenedsectional view taken shownforeshortened; and l Fig. 7. is across-sectional view takenthru the. conical flange formed upon the outer face plate, said figure being taken on the line. 'll in Fig. 6.

with the portions 'shownin larger scale and 20 A wall chute embodying my invention comprises 25 e a tubular chute element a. Said 'tubulanchute element is preferably selected or cut to be 'of such length as to extend slightly beyond the wall surfaces in which it is to be lodged. External laterally turned flanges a are formed upon the ends 30 thereof. Said flangesare preferably formed with a roller device which peans said ends outwardly to form the: flanges. Said flanges engage the faces of a wall I) and the rolling and formation of said flanges lock said tube tightlyin place, 35

and tightly seal said tubular chute element a in place. 1

Upon the outer face I)" of the wall I'arrange a cover plate 0. Said cover plate preferably stands away from the wall slightly at its center 40 c. Extending thru said raised center portion 0 is an inturned conical flange c2. Said flange is axially alined with the bore of the tubular chute member a and extends into said chute membera substantial distance, as is shown in Figs. 2 and 6.

The inclination of said conical flange is such that the aperture (Z at the end of said flange that is the portion of said flange of minimumdiameter, is substantially less than the diameter of the bore of the tubular chute element a. Said conical flange is inclined inwardly at a relatively slight angle so that the said flange may be used as an agency for coiling a bill e into tubular form.

That is, if the bill is arranged roughly in tubular form and an effort is made to insert it into the tubular chute a thru the conical flange 02, the inclination of said flange and the curvature thereof will cause a spirally wound tube to be formed automatically. This expedites the insertion of bills into the wall chute, easily and quickly. The portion of said conical flange of maximum diameter is arranged upon the portion 02 of the cover plate.

The mouth of said conical flange is preferably covered by a disc f pivotally secured at ,f by a rivet or screw f2. Said disc is only loosely mounted so that it will readily fall by gravity to lie across the mouth of said conical flange. The other end of said tubular chute is covered by a plate g which lies more or less flush with the inner face 222 of the wall. Said plate 9 preferably has its edges beveled as at 9 so that said edges will not tend to accumulate dust or dirt. Said cover plate 9 is provided with a hinged cover it. Said cover swings outwardly from the tubular chute a. and is hinged by an offset portion 2' at the top of said .cover. At the lowest portion of said cover is a lip i which may be engaged by the thumb nail or an instrument of some character to swing said cover up to remove any bill lodged within the tubular chute element a.

To aid in the retraction of bills from said wall chute I preferably provide a retracting tool a provided with an annular end a" of substantial diameter. Said annular end is adapted to fit about the conical flan'ge b2 when it lies in place, as is shown in Fig. 6. The other end is formed into a knoblike terminal 9'2 and when in place is arranged immediately inwardly of the hinged cover h.

Thus, a bill to be removed, will expand to bear against the bore of the tubular chute a and the annular end 7" of the retracting tool will lie be- Yond its outermost end. The knob-like terminal will lie immediately inside the hinged cover and thus the tool with the bill e can be easily removed by pulling the tool thru the space normally covered by the cover h into the interior of the dwelling.

- I claim: l. The combination with a wall, of a tubular ,hute locked to said wall by laterally extending flange elements engaging the faces of said wall, two cover plates covering the ends of said chute, respectively, and secured to the wall faces, one plate comprising a face plate provided with an inturned conical flange axially alined with the tubular chute, extending a substantial distance into the latter, but spaced from the walls thereof, the other cover plate comprising a face plate having a pendently swung hinged cover.

2. The combination with a wall, of a tubular chute locked to said wall by laterally extending flange elements engaging the faces of said wall,

two cover plates covering the ends of said chute, respectively, and secured to the wall faces, one plate comprising a face plate provided with an inturned conical flange axially alined with the tubular chute, extending a substantial distance into the latter, but spaced from the walls thereof, the other cover plate comprising a face plate having a pendently swung hinged cover axially alined with said chute and adapted to swing outwardly therefrom.

3. The combination with a wall, of a tubular chute locked to said wall by laterally extending flange elements engaging the faces of said wall, two cover plates covering the ends of said chute, respectively, and secured to the wall faces, one plate comprising a face plate provided with an inturned conical flange axially alined with the tubular chute, extending a substantial distance into the latter, but spaced from the walls thereof, the other cover plate comprising a face plate having a pendently swung hinged cover axially alined with said chute and adapted to swing outwardly therefrom and a retracting element adapted to lie within said chute, said element having an annular terminal of a diameter adapted to extend about said conical flange of one cover plate, the other end of said element adapted to lie internally adjacent the hinged cover of the other cover plate.

4. A mailing chute adapted to be arranged to extend thru a wall comprising a tubular chute adapted to be locked to said wall by laterally extending flange elements engaging the faces of said wall, two cover plates covering the ends of said chute, respectively, and adapted to be secured to the wall faces, one plate comprising a face plate adapted to be locked to said wall by laterally extending flange elements engaging the faces of said wall, two cover plates covering the ends of said chute, respectively, and adapted to be secured to the wall faces, one plate comprising a face plate provided with an inturned conical I flange axially alined with the tubular chute, ex-

tending a substantial distance into the latter, but spaced from the walls thereof, the other cover plate comprising a face plate having a pendently swung hinged cover axially alined with said chute and adapted to swing outwardly therefrom, a retracing element adapted to lie within said chute, said element having an annular terminal of a diameter adapted to extend about said conical flange of one cover plate, the other end of said element adapted to lie internally adjacent the hinged cover of the other cover plate.

6. A mailing chute adapted to be arranged to extend thru a wall comprising a tubular chute adapted to be locked to said wall by laterally 'ex- A swung hinged cover, a retracting element adapted to lie within said chute adapted to engage and withdraw an object arranged in said chute.

THOMAS E. CARTWRIGI-IT. 

